THE MOMENT
BEHIND THE LENS

How---and why---did you take
this photograph?
JS: I knew I had to get a picture of dead
koalas for this story, but I kept running into
trouble. People at the animal clinic I was
working with said it would look bad. The
Australian government doesn't even like
to acknowledge that these koalas are
endangered. But the staff at one place I
visited thought this was an important picture
to make. They told me that in this area these
animals will be gone
entirely in another
three to five years.
They want the world
to know that. So
instead of disposing
of the bodies as the
dead koalas arrived
during the week,
the staff members
saved them for me
back in a freezer
room at the facility.
One of the workers
smuggled them out
for me to photo-
graph, and when we
were done, we went
back and replaced
them in the freezer.
How did that make
you feel?
Talk about a sinking
feeling. Even though
I'd never seen
these particular
koalas alive, I
kind of felt like I'd
gotten to know
them. Putting them
all back in a bin
in the freezer room
was hard. The one
that really got me
was the mother
with the baby still
in her arms.
Joel Sartore
Body Count Staff from an animal care center in Queensland, Australia, helped
photographer Joel Sartore make this array of a single week's koala losses. Some of the dead,
like the mother and baby in the bottom row, were attacked by dogs. Others were struck by
cars. A few, like those shown brightly bandaged, arrived alive and received treatment for their
injuries but still did not survive.
---Margaret G. Zackowitz
TO PROTECT THE IDENTITY OF CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES, THE YELLOW LABEL AT LEFT HAS BEEN BLURRED.